Oogway's Inheritence
by LardBucket
Summary: A true warrior never dies completely, living on in the memories of his comrades. Or so they say. Oogway never completely died either, having left behind a legacy that he's sure a certain panda will definitely find handy...


_Summary: A true warrior never dies completely, living on in the memories of his comrades. Or so they say. Oogway never completely died either, having left behind a legacy that he's sure a certain panda will definitely find handy..._

**Author's Note: **This is a small project I've set up for myself - I've really enjoyed reading KFP fanfiction - you guys come up with amazing ideas xD and are amazing writers to boot. So I decided I'd try my hand at this shtuff and see what I can churn out.

I'm mostly trying to improve my writing so bear with me. I've found I really suck at any kind of emotional writing, so that's something I will be working on in this story :D I've always wanted to experiment with the PoTi pairing, because I think it's really kyuute 3~, and so much fun. And did I mention it's cute?

I'm a junior in high school, so sorry in advance if at any time my life explodes into shards of glass and then proceed to cut themselves into small grains of dust before spontaneously combusting (aka I end up taking some kind of hiatus or whatever).

That said, I sincerely hope you enjoy my writing! And anyone who actually read my author's note, SUPER DUPER PROPS TO YOU 3! (I will stop rambling now.)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: Prologue<strong>

That _stupid_panda!

In her mind's eye, she pictured herself strangling the reckless panda to death once all of this was over, but Tigress stifled those urges. Why couldn't he just have listened to her orders? The leader of the Furious Five had assumed that the beating she had given Po had communicated her point across very effectively. But apparently not.

The wolves closed in on the Five, and the feline's thoughts were cut short as the situation caught up with them once again. Tigress ducked her head instinctively, anticipating her current attacker's next moves based on his muscle twitches and movements. She heard a whoosh above her head as air rushed by and a wolf's axe sailed overhead harmlessly. Lowering into a crouch, Tigress followed up with a low kick that connected to the back of the wolf's shin, knocking him off balance and onto the ground clutching his legs.

Her tiger senses tingling, Tigress could feel the presence of another wolf rushing in from behind. The feline's keen ears detected the loud patters of her new attacker's paws as he charged at her. However, she allowed herself the slightest of smirks to grace her lips as the wolf slashed down upon her only to be rendered incapable to fight by a timely foot to the face from a certain kung-fu fighting primate.

The entire factory's interior was annoyingly steamy from all the metalworking that was being conducted. An untrained person would have an incredibly difficult time navigating their way through the gray-white haziness, making the building perfect conditions for five lifetime kung-fu masters to be facing off against hordes of cheaply bought wolf mercenaries.

A palm strike from Tigress dispatched yet another canine. Behind her, a pair of wolves were seemingly being smacked around by an invisible force, before being whipped around in the air and smashed into the wooden planked floors with a sickening crunch. A praying mantis jumped from the downed bodies and landed himself onto another foe with a cry of "Feear the bug!".

To her right, there was a loud twang followed by the whistles of crossbow arrows in flight at the Five. Her sharp eyes detected the deadly projectiles, widening slightly at the surprise attack.

"Crane! 9-o-clock!", she barked out briefly, before spinning and performing a roundhouse kick on an unfortunate soul behind her.

Before the arrows could make contact there were loud clangs as Crane situated himself in front of the brunt of the projectiles, using his mastery of kung-fu to deflect all of the arrows off himself, before flapping his wings with a loud "caww!", shooting a gust of wind at the wolf crossbowmen that destabilized them from the small part of the platform they were standing on, making them fall to their demises on the conveyor belts below.

"Viper! The stairs!", Tiger shouted out, watching as the named serpent slashed at the thick rope supports holding up the stairs leading up to the platform the Five were currently fighting on. As the supports broke, the stairs collapsed along with the small platoons of canine warriors who were attempting to force their way up the ramp.

Despite all the small victories they were winning, there seemed to be an endless stream of wolves - every one that they took down was quickly replaced by multiple more. Tigress noted, with growing ire, yet another hidden entrance to the factory for workers in the back slamming open and another incoming squad of poorly trained wolves charging inwards with a new batch of cheaply made weaponry.

She heard the sounds of metal piercing wood from above, and spared a glance upwards. There was a large swaying wooden bucket being pulled along a giant conveyor belt by chains, its balance temporarily knocked off whack by the presence of a panda clutching its side for dear life. On a platform at the same level as the bucket, the target of the mission, Lord Shen, stood waiting with his cocky and malicious grin plastered all over his face as he watched his target struggle to stabilize himself. He drew more hidden daggers out of his plumage, flinging them at the Dragon Warrior.

"Are you really willing to die, to know the truth?", the peacock asked in his snide voice with a small grin as the weapons took flight at the helpless panda. Tigress's breath caught in her throat as she thought Po was a goner for sure.

Seeing the incoming weapons, Po gave a hearty grunt as he shifted his weight on the bucket suddenly, giving it enough momentum to swing around such that Po was on the other side of the bucket as Shen's projectiles, which ricocheted harmlessly off of the ironwood crafted bucket.

She breathed a sigh of relief at Po's ingenious defense, but her eyes narrowed as she noticed Shen retrieving yet another wave of steel tipped feathers from his abundant arsenal hidden inside the sleeves of his royal coat and in his plumage..

"We need to move on!", she shouted furiously with the slightest glint of worry in her tone. She leaped up nimbly, connecting the sole of her foot to the face of a poor wolf that became the subject of her rage. Seeing the Five continue to get swarmed by the multitudes of wolves streaming in from who-knows-where, Tigress clarified.  
>"NOW!", she yelled, right as she and the rest of the Five pulled back into a small circle, immediately surrounded by wolves.<p>

The Five met eye contact, nodding and non-vocal communication passing among them. With a loud "hi-yaah!" from the group, they struck outwards suddenly, Crane using a slash from his wings, Viper lashing out with her tail, Mantis lunging forward with his pincers, Tigress rushing out with her claws and Monkey flinging out his body. The immediate group of wolves were flung back into their comrades behind them, creating a large deal of confusion.

Tigress scanned upwards, her eyes spotting a nearby outward sticking ledge that was attached to a higher platform closer to Po. Pointing, she shouted to the rest of her teammates, who each saw what she was looking at and understood the plan. Mantis and Viper jumped onto Crane's back, who took off from the ground. Tigress took a running start before leaping, Monkey following closely behind her. The feline slammed into the pole, her claws digging deep into the bamboo of the structure, but her grip began to loosen because of the thickness of the bamboo despite her claws. Right before she was about to fall, she felt something wrap around her wrist - a primate's tail. Tigress looked up gratefully at Monkey who used his appendage to throw her and himself up and onto the platform.

"Thanks, Monkey.", she mentioned briefly, to which the golden languor smiled and waved it off.

The sounds were deafening - the noises of battle, cries of fallen wolves and the clangs of weapons smashing together, mixed with the habitual machine-emitted groans as conveyor belts moved, production lines creaked along and the fires crackled.

Ears pricking up, out of her peripheral vision Tigress noted, with growing panic, an engagement between Po and the royal peacock. Po neatly ducked beneath a would-have-been-fatal sword swing, his makeshift frying pan hat resonating with the blade with a loud "clang", before retaliating with paw thrusts that were neatly blocked by a whip of the peacock's tail.

At this rate, they were never going to be able to save that reckless panda! A low growl erupted from Tigress' throat as another wave of wolves clambered up onto their part of the structure, wielding an assortment of javelins and blades. There were so many wolves! Where were they coming from?

Behind them, she duly noted, was an easily climbable part of the structure, with many jutted out ledges suitable for simple climbing. But first they had to get past these wolves -

"We got this! Go save Po!", Mantis cried out, slamming his pincers into the pressure point on a wolf's back, causing him to slump to the ground unconscious.

Nodding briefly to her comrades with gratitude, Tigress dashed forward, flipping upwards and landing on top of an unsuspecting wolf's head before leaping off, using her enemy as a springboard as she catapulted herself onto the sticking out ledges with claws extended, using her momentum to flip herself up to catch onto another ledge, continuing to climb in this fashion before flipping in the air and landing gracefully on the same level as Po and Shen. However, the physical distance between Tigress and the panda she intended to save (and later kill for disobeying her and almost dying) was great.

Two wolves carrying javelins, realizing her intent to stop Shen's plans, charged forward menacingly, but were quickly disabled by a quick round house kick to one and forceful palm strikes to the other. Tigress prepared to dart forward, but in front of her landed a giant angry looking gorilla who promptly took the time to roar in her face.

Not one to back down, Tigress responded with her own growl, leaping out of the way as a fist came crashing down on her previous position. While midair, she used her tail to aerially balance herself as she swung one of her feet around to connect with the side of the gorilla's face in an offensive Kung Fu technique. The gorilla stumbled slightly, and Tigress used the opportunity to follow up her kick with another one to the primate's chest. The primate stumbled slightly, before seeing flashing lights as a fisted paw slammed into his face.

"...let me heal you."

Tigress's ears pricked up, hearing the trailing words from Shen's monologue. She, momentarily distracted, paused to update herself on the status of the battle between Po and Lord Shen. The large gorilla who Tigress had just knocked down recovered in the time he was given, clambering unsteadily to his feet slightly dazed. Shaking away the remaining cloudiness in his eyes, his irises dilated as his attention focused once again on the leader of the Furious Five. With a roar, he flung himself forward, arms outstretched.

Tigress's sharp eyes picked up the spark on the cannon as Shen lit the fuse of the weapon targeted straight at her furry black and white comrade. Po's eyes darted around, looking for a possible escape, except he was surrounded by giant molten metal containing barrels and wolves on lower levels of the factory.

Oh nonononono.

No.

No!

Tigress felt her blood turn stone cold as she realized what was going to happen. She felt giant primate arms wrap around her in an attempt to immobilize her, and Tigress' ears flattened against her head as she realized she needed every second she could get to try to save her ally.

"Po!" she cried out, causing the panda to see her. "Get away from Shen!" Her voice was tinted with desperation, as she saw the fuse on Shen's weapon start to burn thin.

Lodging her foot in her attacker's stomach, she felt an immediate release from the trap, which she took to dart forward on all fours. The world seemed to move in slow motion. She saw everything - it was surreal.

Tigress saw the vibration of the cannon as the projectile shot out of its mouth. She saw Po take off the frying pan from his head and hold it tightly to his chest in a feeble attempt to protect himself. She heard her own desperate panting as lactic acid burned her muscles from exertion - she pushed herself to her speed limit and tried even beyond that.

There was a loud roar as the firework fired from the cannon sailed through the air with a terrible aura of death about it despite the colorful and flashy lights it gave off.

"Nooo!", she cried with a voice full of anguish and despair. Her claws flashing out, her arms flailing as she dove to try to intercept her friend's trajectory. But she caught nothing but slightly singed black and white hairs and sparks as her comrade-in-arms flew by her.

With a loud bang, a giant hole was torn into the side of the factory as a certain flying Dragon Warrior was sent sailing through. Tigress grimaced as she stared at her paws - the stupid, useless paws that, despite years and years of training, weren't able to save her teammate.

And now, she felt nothing and sensed nothing but the overwhelming sense of grief that had overcome her, her face frozen in an expression of shock and pain. She had never lost a comrade before (barring Master Oogway but he had died of old age and in a peaceful and beautiful way befitting of the old master), and she hadn't pictured or expected this mission to be the first.

Her mind barely registered the gorilla's arms wrap tightly around hers again, her arms being forced behind her back but Tigress was still externally and internally frozen, completely numbed by the implications of Po's death.

A piercing pain shot through the feline's heart as she thought of the friendly and congenial attitude of the panda, his smile, all of that washed away because of some stupid peacock's lust for revenge.

Tears crept into the tiger's eyes, begging to be released, but a cold exterior built up over years of hardship forced them down.

How could this have happened? Her mind flashed through the recently acquired memories, theorizing millions of things she could have done differently, but none of this consoled her in the slightest.

Her mind barely registered the cool touch of the handcuffs being snapped back on her wrists. She barely even noticed as she was slammed to the ground, noting with hazy eyes the cage Mantis was forced into, the chains Viper were forced back into, the 8-point acupuncture cuffs Monkey became constrained by, and the wing suppressors stuffed onto Crane.

The Five shared a look, but no words were passed. What could be said?  
>There was silence from the kung-fu masters as they were dragged off.<p>

* * *

><p>A large mass, floating unhurriedly in a long, winding river. The top sizzled, charred and ashen. Surrounded by debris - broken pieces of wood and glass, the unidentified object continued to traverse its path, pushed along by the currents of the water.<p>

It finally was stopped in its tracks as its top made contact with a wooden cabin with a dull clunking sound. It rebounded slightly off the obstacle, before the current guided it back into it. The mass emitted a low groan, which heightened in strength as a female goat took the chance to poke a long walking stick into its stomach multiple times.

The Soothsayer smiled, but it was halfway between a smile of happiness and of sadness. Seeing the blackened markings on the panda's stomach in the shape of a cannonball explosion, there was no question as to its origins. However, surely the gods were blessing this warrior today. She breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the slow but sure rising and falling of the large animal's chest, a sign of life.

Sighing, she dragged the limp body out of the river and back to camp.

* * *

><p>"Such sad, sad faces...", the peacock commented with a condescending tone, grinning gleefully at how close he was to achieving his lifelong goal of ruling China. It only widened as he heard and saw Tigress's face scrunch up into the most hateful, vengeant snarl full of anger and indignance she could muster with all the energy she had remaining. It would have been mindbogglingly more fear striking in Shen's heart had Tigress and the others of the Five not been completely wrapped up in chains.<p>

"What?", he asked his prisoners. "Did you actually think that the stupid panda could defeat me?" He was almost genuinely curious. Why did everyone have so much riding on one stinking panda? He was big, fat, led to his death by his emotions, and terrible at kung-fu compared to his teammates. Why did the Soothsayer have so much faith placed in this one warrior she had never met before?

His question was met with growls and hisses from his captives, which made the end of his long beaks curl up in a devious smile. But he paid them no mind, turning around swiftly and marching down forward on his wooden boat, his metallic claws digging into the ground with clamping sounds.

Bah. To look to the past is weakness - he must always look to the future.

"For your information, we are sailing to the harbor. Once we reach there, in front of everyone, you and your precious kung-fu will die.", Shen called out as he turned once again, smirking at the frustrated but slightly resigned features on the faces of the Furious Five. He continued marching forth, away from his prisoners and up to the front of the boat where he could get the best view of the harbor.

"Well guys, looks like this is it.", Mantis noted with a heaving sigh that rocked his whole body. "It was a lot of fun fighting along you guys. I never thought I'd go like this - I always kind of pictured myself dying after some epic battle or something." The rest of the Five seemed to grunt in acknowledgement of his words.

"I regret nothing.", Crane said with conviction. "I started my life as a nobody, a janitor in some school, and now, look at me. Look at us. We're legendary kung-fu warriors with country-wide recognition." His voice had an iron tone to it that probably conveyed more strength than he actually felt.

"We must remain strong. That is what Po would have wanted.", Monkey said quietly but firmly, trying to be a voice of encouragement in this time of despair. "Hardcore - right Tigress?" He shifted as much as he could to give his leader a comforting grin, but Tigress didn't meet his gaze, staring at the ground.

"On the bright side, at least Po went out with a bang.", Mantis joked followed by his own halfhearted guffaws of laughter at his own attempts to lighten the mood, but quickly shut himself up after a hiss from Viper.

She hated looking at the floor. Tigress saw her paws when she did this, which reminded her painfully of her inadequate ability to save a single panda from his fate. She still could not banish all of the possibilities of what could have been from her mind, and decided to avoid it all by looking off the side of the boat and into the eyes of the terrified citizens of the Valley of Peace watching the long armada of Shen's warships as they sailed by.

Tigress found she could not meet their gazes either... not after she failed their hero; their savior from Tai Lung - Po. She twisted her head, looking straight ahead, but only saw the long cloak of the bastard Shen who had killed her friend. Her thoughts were immediately wiped away and replaced with murderous wishes for vengeance and death.

No, Tigress mentally scolded herself. If you are to retain hope, you must keep a level and calm head. If Shifu had been here, he would have been disappointed at her severe lack of self-control.

Looking in the only remaining direction, she gazed upwards at the roofs of the buildings. On top of one, she saw a distant figure. It was slightly hard to make out, but the being was ... round and... wearing a cloak... no - no way. There was no way in hell that...

Her heart pounded quickly with excitement, her eyes widening as she strained to see if her brain was tormenting her in some twisted way to cope with loss.

"Po?"

* * *

><p><strong>Fin of Chapter 1<strong>

Yes, yes I know. Following canon derpdeherpdederp. Bear with me, first chappie is backstory to what's to come :D Please review and comment, criticism on my writing is greatly appreciated. I spent days and days writing this chapter, trying to make sure everything was the way I wanted it. I really enjoy writing, and you can show that my efforts aren't in vain by dropping me a comment ;D (THANKS IN ADVANCE I LOVE YOU ALL 3)

Everything may seem confusing now, but things will be clarified.

Thanks for reading; expect another chapter soon!~~


End file.
